THE RSPCA has been accused of shooting a healthy stag by a family who raised the animal from a fawn.

As revealed in the Gazette last week, the deer was put down by the animal charity after it was seen limping in fields near Tiverton.

But farmer Duncan Kittow has come forward to say that the animal – which he named Stan – had survived an accident as a foal and had been nursed back to health by his daughter.